The franchise was originally going to be called the Honolulu Warriors, but a local team had trademarked that name. As a result, the team was known simply as "The Hawaiians," although the press frequently mistakenly called them the "Honolulu Hawaiians" or the "Hawaii Hawaiians."

In order to keep the NFL out of Hawaii, the WFL had the Hawaiians play their games on Sundays, while the rest of the league played on Wednesday night. This resulted in confusion since one team played a different schedule than the rest of the league, and teams had to fly back to the mainland Sunday night to play again on Wednesday night. The franchise also made the mistake of allowing a same day tape delay of their home games, meaning many Hawaiians' fans would watch the game on TV later on that day. Eventually, the Hawaiians switched to playing on Wednesday nights.

It was the first and to date only major professional American football team to establish its home base outside the contiguous 48 states. (This excludes the Pro Bowl teams, which have called Hawaii home from 1980 to 2009 and again in 2011 and 2012.)